Mmmzr.com‘s concept is relatively straightforward: selling 50×50 pixel ad buttons in columns in the site for twice the amount someone paid for the spot below them. The money generated provides a kickback of up to 200% of the initial investment for previous buyers, plus a tidy profit for the site’s creator. Mmmzr was created by Tadashi, who claims to be a part-time English teacher and translator living in Tokyo who quit both jobs, lost his appartment – and hasn’t shaved in while.

The idea works for two reasons:

1. The concept is brilliant, yet simple. It breaks pretty much everyone’s concept of what we call advertising, yet people are scratching their heads wondering: “Why didn’t I think of that?”
2. The chance of getting one’s money back, or even doubling it, is an added incentive. The higher the prices get, the more people will be willing to invest to make the site known so they can get their money back.

Marketing guru Seth Godin called mmmzr the next Million Dollar Home Page. Since he blogged it a little over 24 hours ago, prices for a 50 x 50 pixel ad on the site have gone from $128 to $4096.

Here’s a quick spreadsheet I did up to show the profit mmmzr makes as ad prices increase:

As you can see, the profit is equal to (price paid for top spot in a column / 2) + 1. This repeats as he has seven columns of ads. Is it realistic for mmmzr to achieve the same success as the Million Dollar Home Page? The answer may hinge on if you’re looking at revenues or profits.

One million in revenue would require selling six ads for $65,536, and a seventh for $131,072, for total cumulative revenues of $1,048,569.

But hitting one million in profits is another story altogether. That would require six ads bought for $262,144, plus a seventh at $524,288, for a profit of $1,048,583.

Would anyone pay $131,072 for an ad on this site? Likely not on the basis of the site’s traffic. But there’s no telling what will happen once the site starts generating mainstream publicity and the prices start getting outrageous enough that the $131,072 buyer themselves could get enough free PR to make it worth it. (A likely candidate would be one of the online casinos.)

Would anyone top the half million dollar mark? I would venture to say no. Still, Tadashi should have no problem affording at least a razor and shaving cream. As I write this, his profit stands at $10,246, and I’m sure he has yet to upload his last ad button.